It is known that it is indispensable to monitor the consumption of franking machines, both by the user, who must note daily the value of the reversible meter (also called invoicing index) in order to fill in a daily consumption statement generally addressed monthly to the Postal Service, and by an officer of this administration who must come in situ to check the veracity of this index with respect to the statements received.
However, this statement becomes particularly delicate when managing a large set of franking machines.
It is known, in particular by Patent EP 0 208 231, to eliminate these manual statements by connecting the franking machine, through the telephone network, to a specialized data-processing server managed by the Postal Service or the dealer of this franking machine. For example, the administration or the dealer being constantly informed of the indexes of the different machines, the user no longer has to fill in daily consumption statements and it is no longer necessary for an officer of this administration to come in situ to check the exactitude thereof. In addition, such permanent connection generally allows a remote “refill” of the franking amount authorized.
However, such a link to a server does not enable the user to have an overall or even local picture of the management of his set and, in particular, it is not possible for him to know, at a given instant, the state of the indexes of the different machines without reading them at the level of each machine as the state of the corresponding statistics. In addition, such an outside connection to a distant server is possible only with modern electronic franking machines. Now, more than 100,000 traditional electromechanical franking machines exist at the present time, on the French territory alone, which do not present this possibility of connection to a remote data-processing server.
It is an essential object of the present invention to provide a process for monitoring the consumptions of franking machines, particularly adapted to the management of an assorted set of machines and which does not necessitate a direct link with a data-processing server. One purpose of the invention is to propose a process for monitoring the consumptions of a set of franking machines which is both supple and simple to use while allowing a coherent management for the user. Another purpose of the invention is to render secure the exchange of data with the Postal Service. A further object of the invention is to allow the Postal Service to track and monitor more precisely the franking operations effected by the user.